The Museum of Cultures in Basel has officially returned a rare 15th-century Inca Khipu—a knotted-string record-keeping device—to the Peruvian government. This specific artifact is considered one of the most complex examples in existence, featuring a unique combination of dyed alpaca fibers and intricate knots that scholars believe record regional census data from the Cusco highlands. The return follows a comprehensive review of the object's acquisition history, which was found to be undocumented.
During the handover ceremony, Peruvian officials emphasized that the Khipu is not merely an artifact but a living sovereign record of the Inca Empire's sophisticated bureaucracy. The repatriation is part of a new Swiss-Peruvian agreement aimed at identifying and returning Indigenous data-bearing artifacts. The Khipu will be housed in the National Museum of Archaeology in Lima, where it will undergo high-resolution digital scanning to aid in ongoing efforts to fully decipher the Inca knot-code.